In this photograph above, the game is the 1970 World Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The game is in progress, and the pitcher for the Orioles is Jim Palmer.  From the scoreboard behind the pitcher, you can see that the Orioles have so far scored 6 runs, have had 8 hits, and have made 0 errors.  (The R, H, E letters are difficult to see in the photo, but that is the order in which the numbers are displayed.)  The Dodgers have scored 0 runs, made 4 hits, and have committed 6 errors, which is an unusually high number of errors, especially for a team in the World Series.  It is not possible to tell from the scoreboard which inning is now being played.  The Orioles is the visiting team, and the Dodgers is the home team, so this means that this game is now being played in Los Angeles.

In the photo, you can also see the first base, which is the white object on the baseline to the right of the pitcher.  Standing on the baseline in the black suit is the first base umpire, and to his right is the first baseman of the Orioles, which is the team now on defense.  The person in uniform sitting down just by the side and in front of the scoreboard is the bat boy, who has various duties on the field but is not a player.  He picks up stray balls, provides spare balls to the home plate umpire, and has other non-playing duties.  (The game in the photo above is not the same game as the game described on the right column here.)

In the scoreboard of the game mentioned in the Offense page, the last game of the year 2000 World Series between the Yankees and the Mets, we have explained about the innings, runs in an inning, the total number of runs in the column "R", the number of hits in the column "H", and the number of errors in the column "E".

Next to the letter "W" is the name Stanton.  This "W" stands for the pitcher on the winning team being Stanton of the Yankees, and "L" stands for the pitcher of the losing team being Leiter of the Mets.  "S" means Rivera of the Yankees being credited with a "Save". 

The winning pitcher means the pitcher who is credited with that game as a "Win", even though the team may have used several pitchers who pitched in that game.  The winning pitcher usually is the pitcher who was the active pitcher at the time in the game when the team that eventually won the game finally had more runs than the losing team.  This is known as "taking the lead" for the last time, and that the losing team in that game did not have at any time thereafter had more runs than the eventual winning team.  In the game above, after the second inning, the Mets had the lead until the sixth inning, when the Yankees scored a run to tie the game.  The game stayed tied, at 2 runs to 2 runs, until the Yankees scored 2 more runs in the ninth, and took the lead then.  So Stanton was the active pitcher, or "the pitcher of record", and that time, and received credit for the win.

Conversely, the losing pitcher is the pitcher of record when team that eventually lost the game, fell behind to the winning team for the last time.  So, Leiter of the Mets was the pitcher of record when the Yankees took the lead, and the Mets fell behind, in the top half of the ninth inning. 

A Save is recorded for a pitcher if he enters the winning team's game when the team already has the lead in runs, and he pitches until the end of the game, and does not allow the eventual losing team to regain the lead in runs.  So, in the above game, Rivera pitched in the bottom half of the ninth inning, and prevented the Mets from scoring any more runs.

The numbers following each pitcher's name is their record.  Stanton (3 - 0) means he has been credited with 3 wins and 0 losses.  Leiter has been credited with 0 wins and 1 loss.  Rivera has been credited with 6 saves.

The official scorekeeper for the game is the person who makes the determination of who is credited with the win, loss, save, as well as other statistics, which are explained below.

New York has won (W) 87 games, and lost (L) 74 games, for a winning percentage of 0.540 (54%) and is leading this Division in winning percentage.  GB means games behind and is a measure of how far removed from the leader the team is.

Each win of the trailing team is worth 0.5 games, or each loss of the leading team is worth 0.5 games.  Thus, if New York were to play Tampa Bay for their last game, and if New York lost, its final record would be:

    New York, W - 87    L - 74      PCT - 0.537    GB -  -  (because they are leader)

    Boston              85         77                0.525             2.0 (due to NY's loss)

Then, according to some complicated rule, certain of these teams will enter the playoffs to determine who will represent the National and American Leagues in the World Series of Major League Baseball.